Q&A with Agustín Arteaga, new CEO and director of the Crocker Art Museum
On July 1, the Crocker Art Museum welcomed its first new director and CEO in a quarter century. Before taking the helm of the Crocker, Agustín Arteaga spent eight years as the director of the Dallas Museum of Art. He has also led major museums in Puerto Rico, Buenos Aires and Mexico City, where he was the director of the country’s national art museum; has overseen or curated major retrospectives of renowned creatives like Frida Kahlo, Roy Lichtenstein, Diego Rivera and Christian Dior; and has served on the board of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts since 2020. Weeks before starting his new position, he talked to us from Dallas about his vision for the Crocker’s future, the need for museums to reflect their communities, and the importance of raising our museum’s international profile.
The Picasso of Positivity
He is the most prolific public artist in Sacramento, with hundreds of works—from large-scale commissioned murals to decidedly uncommissioned guerrilla pieces—beautifying the urban landscape. Now, J.M. Knudsen is expanding his vision for a more creative city. As one of his influences, Pablo Picasso, said: “Action is the foundational key to all success.” But for all Knudsen’s ambitious goals, the core of his message for us all remains deceptively simple: “YOU ARE GREAT.”
Fun in the Sun at these June Fairs and Festivals
The El Dorado County Fair is off to the races, Sacramento Pride brings a dose of joy to Capitol Mall, the Sacramento French Film Festival offers up a slate of French exports, and more. Here are the fairs and festivals delivering tons of summer fun in June.
Your 2025 Guide to Outdoor Movie Screenings in the Sacramento Area
Break out the lawn chairs and the popcorn, bring a light jacket for when the Delta Breeze rolls in, and cozy up with your friends and family for some outdoor movie screenings this summer (and a few in the fall, too). Whether you’re in the mood for classics like The Goonies and Big, recent blockbusters like Wicked, or animated family fare like Moana 2, these grassy lawns, museum courtyards, and even swimming pools are the place to be.
Pretty Enough To Eat
Over the past year, Jeff Nebeker’s ceramic doughnuts have gone deliciously viral, with each new batch attracting lines around the block outside midtown’s Elliott Fouts Gallery. With National Doughnut Day fast approaching on June 6, we talk to the 68-year-old Sacramento artist and former baker about his “yum aesthetic.”
Q&A with NBA Great Bill Cartwright
As a five-time NBA champion, Bill Cartwright is unequivocally the winningest basketball star to ever emerge from Sacramento. Drafted by the New York Knicks in 1979 straight out of the University of San Francisco—where he landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a student in 1977 and currently serves as director of university initiatives—the 7-foot-1 former big man is best known as the starting center who competed alongside Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls team that three-peated in the early ’90s. (Later that decade, he earned two more rings as an assistant coach for the franchise.) Now 67, the Elk Grove High alum and Gold River resident—who recently published his autobiography, Living Life at the Center—talks about growing up on a farm, his thoughts on today’s NBA, and why Sacramento “is the place to be.”
Inflatable Art: Why Not Here?
For decades, inflatable public art has been popping up around the world. We’d like to float this idea here too.
Kick off summer early with these fun fairs and festivals in May
Break out your flip-flops, bring your appetite, and get ready for some big fun. Check out these four fairs and festivals in May to get a jump-start on the summer revelry.
Field of Dreams
Build it, and they will come. On March 31—after decades of trying to land a Major League Baseball team—Sacramento finally got its civic wish when the Athletics played their first home opener at the newly renovated Sutter Health Park. The team may have lost the game to the Chicago Cubs, but fans packed every corner of the stadium for a chance to witness history and, of course, to root, root, root for the home team.
In the Name of the Mother
With Chu Mai, James Beard Award-nominated chef Billy Ngo honors his mom and the dishes he grew up loving, while putting his own spin on Vietnamese and Chinese classics. The result is a noteworthy new restaurant whose dishes taste both comfortingly familiar and excitingly fresh.
Out and About in May and June 2025
There’s an Englishman in Wheatland as Sting takes the Hard Rock Live stage; the ninth annual Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival lights up the screen at The Sofia; Leon Bridges at Thunder Valley, and more. Here are 10 local events rounding out the spring.
Where She Was From
Life for E.A. Hanks, who grew up in the Fabulous Forties as the daughter of Tom Hanks, may have looked like it was coming up roses. Too often, though, the reality was anything but, as the self-described “Sacramento girl” details in her poignant new book, The 10: A Memoir of Family and the Open Road, which follows a childhood shaped by her mother’s mental illness and a writer’s search for the truth, thorns and all.
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